Ike Smith tallied 23 points and six rebounds, and Georgia Southern held Coastal Georgia to 23 percent shooting from the floor to post a 92-43 men’s basketball victory over in the Mariners in its home opener Monday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.

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B.J. Gladden chipped in 15 points and five rebounds for the Eagles (1-1), while Montae Glenn and Shawn O’Connell each posted nine points and six rebounds.

Georgia Southern held the Mariners to 12 of 52 from the field and recorded 12 steals while forcing 22 turnovers. The Eagles shot 55 percent on the other end and canned 9 of 27 3-point tries.

The story

The Eagles pulled away at the end of the first half with a 14-0 run over the final 5:33 of the period. Gladden netted five during the stretch, and Montae Glenn scored four to help GS take a 38-18 lead into the break.

The Eagles opened the second frame with a 13-4 spurt and opened a 51-22 cushion on a Coye Simmons putback 4:32 into the period. An 18-6 run, sparked by a Tookie Brown layup in transition, ballooned the margin to 41 points with 4:57 to go. The largest lead was 48 points following a Dominique Bullock triple off an assist by James Holder with 1:24 remaining.

Quotables from Mark Byington

"Our defensive effort was great. Sometimes, the execution was a little sloppy in the first half. We missed a couple box outs, and that was really the only issue I had. I don't know how many shot clock violations we forced, but the shot clock went off a lot. They were trying to control tempo, and our defense kept playing hard the entire possession so we had very few breakdowns there. Defense was definitely our strongest area tonight.”

“Right now, you are trying to build habits, and you want to see how guys can handle adversity, which we faced more at NC State than here, but also how they handle success. Can they handle success and then make the next play after that or are they caught up in the last one? The next play philosophy has to be whether we're handling adversity or something good. Tonight was more good, but you know, we're still young. I keep wanting to think we’re older and everything else, but not having any seniors, we're still young and make a lot of young mistakes.”

Next up

Georgia Southern opens play in the Savannah Invitational at Mercer Sunday, Nov. 20, and the game can be seen on ESPN3. The tournament concludes in the Savannah Civic Center Nov. 25 and 26, and the Eagles play at 2:30 p.m. each of those days.